baby mali no colour

[tia_michelle]

I have a new mali, they told me he (?) is a baby (?) he is aprox 6 inches not including his tail, they also told me that he would get some colour later because he has none now, any helpful tips ? I had never herd of thease guys before I bought mine 2 days ago. he seems happy (eats out of my hand ). thank-you
newbie
trish

[DeVackHerps]

as adults they will have, a yellow back with a blackish head.. ive seen a full grown mali crack glass with a tail whip. but i know they love greens, and seeds. (parakeet, cockateil) and they like to dig down. so give him room to dig. good luck with yours!

[tia_michelle]

thanks for the info, we are really getting to know him now. He has however stopped eating.. I think he might be shedding he has spots on him that have turned greyish and look very dry. I coaxed him into eating by letting him have a few crickets well dusted with vitamins about 4 days ago (bad me). and his behavior has become a little anti social. any more info would be great thank-you
trish (me) and grisson (lizzard)

[Karen Hulvey]

but i know they love greens, and seeds. (parakeet, cockateil)
I beg to differ here. Seeds larger than parakeet seed is bad, bad, bad and can cause impaction. Most cockatiel blends on the market have sunflower seeds in them which would be very bad for the Mali. So NO 'TIEL seed, ever.
ive seen a full grown mali crack glass with a tail whip.
I have never, ever heard of a Mali, even a large adult, tail whip hard enough to crack glass. In fact I've never seen a Mali do anything that even looks like tail whipping. I have had them thrash a bit when I pick them up but it's nothing I'd call actual tail whipping. In fact I've never even seen a large iguana crack glass with a tail whip. I have seen Iggys break their tails while whipping the glass but for a Mali to crack glass, well I'm from Missouri and you have to SHOW ME because I don't believe it.

If your Mali isn't eating, here are a few pointers that should help you get him/her to eat.

They need a super hot basking area from about 110° to 130° with the cool side going down to around 80° during the day. At night turn off the heat light and let the whole cage cool down to around 80°. They like tight hides so give him several hides both on the hot side and on the cool side. Remember they are diggers so any rocks you place in the enclosure need to be placed on the bottom of the tank, not on top of the sand. He could, and will, dig under the rock, rock falls on Mali and you have a dead Mali.

Offer him leafy greens chopped up such as kale, collard greens, mustard greens, dandelion leaves & flowers, romaine lettuce, etc. I also give mine Rep-Cal tortoise food on top of the greens. They love it.

They do not need water in their enclosure. Keeping a water dish in their enclosure will only cause tail rot. They get all the moisture they need from their greens. I make the "salad" and I always mist it with water so there are water droplets all over the food.

Now if your animal isn't eating, that's another story. I would soak him/her in about 1" of lukewarm water for 15-20 minutes and let him drink if he wants to each day until he is eating well. It will also aid in his shed as you stated you think he is shedding.

I find that the problems many people have with the uromastyx in general is that they don't give them a proper basking area. People think that a 90° basking area is okay but the animal isn't warm enough and therefore won't eat.

As for color, your animal won't color up, even if it's an adult, until it has warmed up under the heat light. So if you're heat light isn't getting him warm enough, he will never color up. Now if it's a female, it won't color up but will stay brown. I have seen some high yellow females but they are in the minority.

So tomorrow check your temps under his basking light and see if that's where your problem lies.

Good luck with the little guy, they are neat, neat critters and very docile.

[DeVackHerps]

the mail that cracked the glass was, unexplainable, but its made a decent size crack about 6 inches in a glass tank, (not fish tank) those are st tonger with thick glass, it wasn't a tail whip like a ig would do, but it thrashed around and smashed the glass with tail and smacked my hand and cut it. this was about 2 years back with an import my friend just received. the cockateil, i wasn't referring to sunflower type seeds. there are some that ive seen with small granulates like parakeet or finch seed., may find some bigger seed but just take out the sunflower seeds. but the small stuff doesn't hurt them. parakeet would be better to go with because you dont have to worry about picking out the sunflower or other bigger pieces. good luck once again, and for the not eating, make sure its hot enough like she posted. they need lots of heat.

[tia_michelle]

had a reptile specialist in to look at him tonight. Turns out the pet store was a little wrong gggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrr my mali is an adult, under-nourished with a lacerated, swollen foot. Should be able to nurse him back with lots of cricket treats (dusted), a bath and some atibiotic ung every night untill he gains weight and his foot heals. his tank has a basking spot of 114 ( air temp ) and cool end of 85 and night time temps no lower than 70. A trick I was told to try if he dose not fatten up is to put a few bettle larva in his budgee seed to get him started on it. he does not seem to have any urge to hide ???? he has 2 places to hide and 2-3 inched of sand to dig, But I always find him sleeping in the sand out in the open ?? silly boy !. any more ideas on what to do to cox him to eat would be great. I should mention everymorning he is given a green salad, fronzen peas, carrotts and beans thawed, some chopped fresh zuccinni or sweet potato and a sliver or two of a hard fruit ( apple pear ).
I am keeping in touch with the specialist to make sure he continues on the mend, I am feeling pretty bad though, he had a mate in the store and I don't think she is going to make it :0( really thinking I might go get her ??? any one have any ideas on that ??
thanks for the help
Trish

[DeVackHerps]

i would talk to the store about the animals and there health if they sold it to you like that. and see if you can take the other or buy it for a cheaper price because of the condition. but wow he eats a damn good salad! best of luck with him. give him time im sure he will come around.

[tia_michelle]

hi,
just a quick note , bought the female today (at cost) her condition is worse than his, she had quite the meal tonight but remains very skitterish. she is so thin that bones are protruding every where, we have named her kathryn and hope that she makes it. We are giving her pedalyte with calcium/d3 in it by a eye dropper and gave her a short bath so we could asses her. grissom seems to be on the mend he loves his nightly bath and run around. ( we are having to do this because of a large cut we discovered on one of his feet ). well wish us luck. thanks for your help Trish.

[DeVackHerps]

watch out for that D3 stuff, easily can overdose on it.